Home / Romance / SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS / CHAPTER 3: The Investigator

Share

CHAPTER 3: The Investigator

Author: ASHVA
last update publish date: 2026-02-16 06:04:13

ARIA'S POV

I found Flynn on the couch at six in the morning. Still in yesterday's suit, shoes on, one arm thrown over his face.

I'd heard him come downstairs around two. The creak of the stairs. The soft click of the guest bathroom door. Then nothing. I'd lain in bed staring at the ceiling, counting my breaths, waiting for him to come up and try again to explain.

He never did.

Now morning light came through the living room windows. His briefcase sat by the door where he'd dropped it. His tie was on the coffee table, coiled like a snake.

I went to the kitchen. Made coffee. The machine hissed and dripped. Normal sounds. Normal morning. Except nothing was normal.

He appeared in the doorway as I poured my second cup. His hair stuck up on one side. His collar was wrinkled.

"Aria."

I didn't look at him. Just added cream, watched it swirl brown to tan.

"Can we talk?"

"No."

"Please. I just need—"

"I said no."

I walked past him. Grabbed my purse and keys. My hand shook putting the keys in the ignition, but I got the car started and backed out without looking at the house.

The gallery opened at ten. I was there by seven-thirty. Torres Contemporary sat in a converted warehouse, all exposed brick and high ceilings. Normally I loved the quiet before we opened. The way morning light hit the art. The smell of coffee from the cafe next door.

Today it all felt hollow.

I had three emails from artists about the upcoming show. Installation started Friday. I'd been excited about this exhibit for months. Now I stared at my computer screen and couldn't remember why any of it mattered.

"You're here early."

I jumped. Jordan stood in the doorway holding two coffees and a bag that smelled like pastries.

"Couldn't sleep," I said.

She set the coffee on my desk. Studied my face. Jordan and I had been friends since college. She knew when I was lying.

"Babe, you look like death. What's going on?"

My throat closed up. I picked at the corner of my desk calendar.

"Aria."

"I think my husband is having an affair."

The words came out flat. Matter-of-fact. Like I was saying the copier was broken or we needed more frames.

Jordan pulled up a chair. "You think?"

"I found bank statements. He's been sending five thousand dollars a month to a woman named Sienna Thornfield. For eight months."

"Jesus."

"He won't tell me who she is. Just keeps saying it's complicated."

Jordan's jaw tightened. She'd never particularly liked Flynn. Too polished, she'd said once. Too perfect. I'd thought she was being paranoid.

"You think?" she said again. "Aria, you're the most observant person I know. If you think it, it's happening."

My eyes burned. I pressed my palms against them. "I need to know for sure."

"What are you going to do?"

I'd been thinking about it all night. Between counting ceiling tiles and listening to Flynn not come upstairs, I'd made a decision.

"Remember when sarah got divorced You got her a lawyer said she was incredible."

Jordan nodded slowly. "Sarah Mendoza. She's good."

"Does she know any private investigators?"

"Aria-"

"I have to know." My voice cracked. "I can't ask him again. He's just going to lie. I need the truth."

Jordan pulled out her phone. "I'll text Sarah right now."

By noon, I had a name. Rebecca Cole. Licensed investigator, fifteen years experience, specialization in infidelity cases. The words made my stomach turn.

I called from my car during lunch.

"Ms. Sinclair?" Her voice was professional. Kind. "Sarah mentioned you might reach out. How can I help?"

I told her about the statements. The name. Flynn's refusal to explain. My voice stayed steady until the end, then broke on the word "affair."

"I'm sorry you're going through this," Rebecca said. "I know how hard this is. What I can tell you is that if there's something to find, I'll find it. And if there's not, I'll tell you that too."

"How long does it take?"

"Depends. Sometimes I have answers in a day. Sometimes it takes longer. I'll start with basic background on Sienna Thornfield. See what's publicly available. Then we go from there."

"Okay."

"My retainer is two thousand. That covers the first twenty hours. I'll send you a contract."

I used my personal account. The one Flynn didn't touch. I'd been saving it for art supplies. For classes I kept meaning to take. For some day.

I signed the contract in my car and sent it back. Then I sat there with my hands on the steering wheel, feeling sick.

The next forty-eight hours crawled.

Flynn tried to talk. Sent texts that I deleted without reading. Had flowers delivered to the gallery. Two dozen white roses with a card that said *Please*. I gave them to the receptionist.

At home, we moved around each other like ghosts. He'd try to start conversations. I'd leave the room. Once, I came home and found him at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. He looked up when I walked in. His eyes were red.

I went upstairs without a word.

Wednesday evening, my phone rang. Unknown number.

"Ms. Sinclair? It's Rebecca Cole."

My hand tightened on the phone. "You found something."

"I did. Is now a good time to talk?"

I was in the gallery parking lot. The sun was setting, painting everything orange. "Yes."

"I found her. And Ms. Sinclair, you're going to want to sit down for this."

I was already sitting. My legs had gone numb anyway.

"Tell me."

"The woman's name is Sienna Thornfield." Rebecca paused. Gentle. Like she was bracing me. "And she's seven months pregnant.”

Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Comments (5)
goodnovel comment avatar
I.O PIETRO
Men will always be men, they'll stain your white
goodnovel comment avatar
Hokky
If only he had told her
goodnovel comment avatar
Hokky
If only he had told her
VIEW ALL COMMENTS

Latest chapter

  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 71: The Full Picture

    ARIA'S POVWe sat across from each other and didn't move, the radiator did what it always did at this hour and neither of us said anything until the sound faded.Then I said: "Tell me the rest."He looked at me."Aria-""The rest, Dominic," I said. "All of it. In order."Something shifted in his face. Not the warmth dropping exactly. More like a man who had been holding something for a long time and understood, looking at me now, that the holding was finished. That I was not going to accept anything less than the full sequence and he could see this and there was nothing left to manage.He told me.He started with Isabella. The three years together, the engagement, the end of it. Her friendship with Sienna, how long it had gone back, the specific depth of a connection I hadn't known existed between the two women who had both been inside my story without my knowledge. When Isabella had told him about Flynn, about Sienna, about what was happening with my marriage, Dominic had understood

  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 70: The Question

    ARIA'S POVI cleaned the apartment before he arrived.I noticed myself doing it halfway through wiping down the kitchen counter, the cloth moving in slow careful circles over a surface that was already clean. I stopped, put the cloth down and stood there for a moment.This is not about comfort. This is not something you clean your way through.I left the rest of it, sat on the couch and waited.He arrived at seven exactly, always punctual. I opened the door and saw him with a bottle of wine in his hand. A specific bottle, a Willamette Valley pinot I'd mentioned once in passing three months ago, the kind of offhand mention that people didn't usually remember. He remembered. He always remembered things."I remembered," he said. Warm, easy, the smile that had been one of the first things I noticed about him.I took the bottle.Set it on the counter and didn't open it.He came inside and I heard the small pause behind me, the fraction of a second where he registered the absence of the us

  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 69: What Jordan Found

    ARIA'S POVJordan arrived with food. A bag from the breakfast spot three blocks over, the kind of place that required a wait on weekday mornings. She'd gotten there early enough to beat the line, which meant she'd been up thinking about this before most people were awake.I knew this signal. Jordan brought food when the conversation was going to require something to do with your hands.I put the kettle on without being asked.We sat at my kitchen table with the food between us and I watched her arrange the things she bought. She wasn't dramatic about it. Jordan was never dramatic. She was methodical, which was sometimes worse."Tell me," I said.She did.She laid it out cleanly and in order. Everything she found. She said it all without the framing of someone trying to convince me of something. Just information, laid on the table in sequence, and then she stopped and let the silence be what it was.The room was very quiet. Then. "You're telling me," I said, "that he knew about Flyn

  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 69: What Jordan Found

    ARIA'S POVJordan arrived with food. A bag from the breakfast spot three blocks over, the kind of place that required a wait on weekday mornings. She'd gotten there early enough to beat the line, which meant she'd been up thinking about this before most people were awake.I knew this signal. Jordan brought food when the conversation was going to require something to do with your hands.I put the kettle on without being asked.We sat at my kitchen table with the food between us and I watched her arrange the things she bought. She wasn't dramatic about it. Jordan was never dramatic. She was methodical, which was sometimes worse."Tell me," I said.She did.She laid it out cleanly and in order. Everything she found. She said it all without the framing of someone trying to convince me of something. Just information, laid on the table in sequence, and then she stopped and let the silence be what it was.The room was very quiet. Then. "You're telling me," I said, "that he knew about Flyn

  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 68: Jordan's Feeling

    JORDAN'S POVI'd had the feeling for weeks.Not a specific feeling. Not that I could point or name it. More like the low grade awareness you got when something in a room was slightly off and you couldn't locate the source but you kept looking anyway.It had started at the girls' day out. Isabella's face when Aria talked about Dominic. The smile that was the right shape but doing something complicated underneath it. I kept it at the back of my mind. Then the text from Aria the night of the gala. He's everything, Jordan.That “everything” bothered me.Perfect is not a word that applied to people who were actually real. Real people were specific. They had things that were good, things that needed work, histories that were complicated and patterns that repeated. Nobody who was real was everything. Everything was what you said about someone when you hadn't found the edges yet or when you'd found them and chosen not to look directly.Ryan was clearing the dinner plates when I said it."So

  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 67: "Flowers at the Door"

    I turned the key in the lock and stepped into my apartment building still carrying the heavy knot from lunch with Isabella. I hadn't decided anything yet. Not what to do with what she told me or whether to say a word to Dominic. For twenty minutes in the elevator I had even forgotten we had plans tonight.Then I saw him.Dominic stood right there at my door, holding a bouquet of soft pink peonies. My favorite. The ones he always remembered."Beautiful women should have beautiful things," he said, voice low and warm as he held them out to me.“ Awwn, Dominic” I took the flowers, their petals cool against my palm. This is what it looks like. This is what real feels like. The thought hit me so hard it almost knocked the breath out of me."Come in," I said, my voice steadier than I felt.He followed me inside and closed the door. I headed straight for the kitchen, found a vase under the sink, and filled it with water. The stems made a soft rustle as I arranged them. They looked perfect on

  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 27: Flynn Sees Them

    FLYNN'S POVThe client dinner ran two hours longer than scheduled because Gerald Mack liked to talk and I'd remembered how to listen.That was the thing about business. It didn't care what your personal life looked like. You showed up, you focused and you made the other person feel like the most im

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-27
  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 37: Falling

    ARIA'S POVI didn't mean to stay.We'd fallen asleep on his couch somewhere after midnight, the movie long finished, my head finding the space between his shoulder and his chest the way it had without either of us deciding that was where it would go. I woke up at 2 AM to the city quiet outside the

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-04-05
  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 36: Flynn's Reckoning

    FLYNN'S POVCatherine had fallen asleep on Sienna's shoulder by the time I said it."The divorce finalized this week."Sienna didn't respond right away. She adjusted Catherine slightly, the automatic movement of someone who had learned in two months to do everything with one arm, and looked at the

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-04-04
  • SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS    CHAPTER 35: The Divorce Is Final

    ARIA'S POVI wore real clothes to sign my divorce papers.Not black or celebratory. Just the blazer and the ankle boots I saved for days that required me to feel like myself. The kind of outfit you put on when you need your outside to hold your inside together.Jordan had offered to come three time

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-04-03
More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status